1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to heat radiating devices and, more particularly, to mounting apparatus for quartz heater tubes.
2. Description of the Art
Infrared heaters are widely used to apply high intensity heat to various articles to effect drying of the articles and/or coatings applied to the articles. One type of infrared heating device is a quartz infrared heater formed of a resistance wire element mounted within a tube. Typically, the quartz tube includes ceramic end caps through which electrical connections to the resistance wire heating element are made, with the end caps also serving to mount and attach the heater tube in a desired position on a structural support frame.
The end caps are mounted on the frame in a particular configuration to provide a desired heating quantity and heat pattern to the article. Typically, vertical columns of parallel arranged pairs of end caps are fixedly mounted to a frame structure. To enhance the heating efficiency of the quartz heater tubes, a shiny reflector surface is mounted behind the quartz heater tubes and the frame.
While such infrared heating structure has proven effective, it is not without its deficiencies. Since the frame is fixedly mounted to the reflector surface, or the heater tubes are mounted directly on the reflector surface, it is difficult to easily clean and/or repair the reflector surface without removing the quartz heater tubes from the end caps.
Further, as the quartz heater tubes or lamps are designed in a specific arrangement to provide a desired heat quantity in a specific pattern to an article, subsequent modifications to the article or the use of the heater assembly with different products requires a rearrangement of the lamps, such as the use of additional or fewer lamps or a rearrangement of the position of lamps in the frame. Since the end caps are fixedly mounted on the frame and/or on the reflector surface, rearrangement and/or changing the number of the lamps is time consuming and costly.
Another deficiency encountered with the typical prior art side-by-side, vertical column arrangement of heater lamps is due to the side-by-side mounting of the end caps in each column. Since the last 3/4" to 1" of each lamp is a non-heat generating surface, this short distance coupled with the length of the end cap itself creates a significant non-heat generating space between two end to end arranged lamps in adjacent vertical columns. This leads to gaps in the heating pattern and less than maximum heating efficiency.
Thus, it would be desirable to provide a heater element mounting apparatus including lamps mounted on a frame structure, which structure is movable relative to a rear disposed reflector surface. It would also be desirable to provide a heater element mounting apparatus in which the lamp end caps are selectively adjustable in position within the frame structure of the apparatus. It would also be desirable to provide such a heater lamp mounting apparatus in which the end caps are fixedly lockable in variably selectible positions within the frame structure. It would also be desirable to provide a heater lamp mounting apparatus which minimizes the effects of the non-heat generating ends of the lamps and the end caps over the height and width of the mounting apparatus.